


An Indirect Kiss

by pessimisticfangirl



Category: The Get Down (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Multi, OT3, the pigeons are safe, wiseman Dizzee
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-10
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-08-14 07:45:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8004214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pessimisticfangirl/pseuds/pessimisticfangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It shouldn't be a problem. It was only a kiss. They'd both kissed other people before. This wasn't just any other person though. This was his main man. Wasn't like kissing strangers at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You're Flying

On the roof of the temple, Shaolin laid back to watch his birds. He could pick out every one of them even as they spun. All free up there. With their backs to the sun. He was so focused on their flying that he didn’t hear someone coming up the fire escape. By the time he propped himself up on his elbows to see what's what a whole new bird was nestled at his feet. A disco duck had perched on her knees, in that floral dress Zeke just loved.

And like that his wings were snapped. He was down again, back in the Bronx.

"Hey Shao" Mylene whispered, in a tone Shao recognized. The sugary one she used on just about anyone to butter them up. "Can I ask you something?"

"What you want choir girl?" He said. Adding a glare for good measure.

"It's just that I seen the way you and Zeke are –”

He stopped her there, "What about it?"

"Well you know him and me aren't anything right?" She said, a ghost of a smile on her lips.

Shaolin sighed, "All I know is that he your man and your his girl."

"Yeah, but we can see other folks if we want" Mylene moved to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear as that syrupy smile widened. "I was thinking. We been getting along better and better."

Seeing her shifting to sit beside him, he tried to beat her to it. Not wanting her too close. Even with Shaolin sitting up, she continued to move closer. They were sharing air now. The proximity had Shao’s shoulders locking up. For a moment she stares into him, while he avoided her gaze. Until he concedes and looks at her. And she takes his surrender as permission and kisses him. For some reason, Shao can only think of where Mylene's lips have been. That moment of the two kissing in the stairwell has never played more vividly in his mind. The thought alone has Shao kissing her back.

When they pull apart, the feeling of her huffed breath against his lips shocks him back into reality. Shao releases a shaky "no". Which apparently surprised Mylene so much that she moves away from him. And he has room to breathe again. "Why did - why would -" Shao can’t even get the words out.

"I like you Shao. You're not half as bad as you like to think."

"So what, this was because I was a little nice to you?!" Shao said, his voice cold and sharp. Like his blade.

The intensity gave Mylene pause, but only for a second. "No. But you're sweet on me now though, admit it."

"It's not cause I like you!" Shao fired back. The brokenness on her face made him reevaluate his words. "Not in the way you thinking." He groaned. "Your Zeke girl. Couldn't hate you forever." Shao even tried giving her a smile, but that miserable face was still looking back at him. "It's not your fault he love you." He added, using pure honesty as his last resort. "And you’re alright, I mean, for a disco duck."

"I'm sorry I read you wrong." She replied. To Shao her voice was weighted by something like pity.

"It's whatever." He mumbled as he got up on his feet. He glanced up at his birds, "please don't tell Zeke about this." He sees her nod and move to get up. He doesn't know why he does it, but as soon as she's on her feet he asks her to help out with his birds.

It doesn't take long until he's talking again. He tells her all about how he maintains the coop and how he figured out just what to feed them. Turns out bread was no good for birds. "Usually this is something I do with Napoleon. As his mentor we got to have good communication, so we talk out here."

She nods along to everything he says. That miserable face is slowly fading away. Soon she'll forget all about whatever she was feeling for Shao.

"Zeke says you talk plenty out here with him too." She asks, an air of innocence to it. Which Shao distrusts, but he can't see where she's going so he just keeps on talking.

"We'll yeah. Penny's his favorite. I'll introduce you." Shao smiled at that. Penny had been smitten with Zeke since he'd first held her. It seemed like Zeke felt the same. "She's the sweetest girl." Shao added under his breath.

Once Penny was in her hands Mylene looked up at Shao with a question in her eyes. "What do you think about up here?"

"Life. Everything. Nothing." Shao answered, shrugging his shoulders at her. "Sorry, I'm not the best at words and shit."

"Try." Mylene insisted. In that soft way of hers that had people really eager to please.

"I think about flying. Not like actually in the sky, but like how it must feel."

"You know Anna," Shao pointed to one of the pigeons that to Mylene was indistinguishable from the rest. "She had got sick and couldn’t be in the air for a bit. She hated being so sick. Feel like that must be how not flying – not doing what makes you happy – is like. For everybody. Just fucking sad."

"What's flying for you? What makes you happy –” she looked down at Penny and giggled, "Besides pigeons?"

"The get down. How the sound be filling your body. The energy from the crowd. That connection with my boys. It's a fucking high." And Shao, being the performer he naturally was, spun about and slid around the roof top to cement his point. The laughter from Mylene only egging him on.

When she'd finally collected herself she asked him yet another question, "So you must really like the practice too. It has some of the parts you love. Music. Friends."

"Absolutely. The things my boys come up with really bring the show to life. That fine detail shit. Boo makes all the dances. Dizzee keeps us looking fly. Ra is just full of ideas. And Zeke is the other half of our sound. He make it so we all shine through." In his excitement he keeps going. Her friendly eyes were so welcoming. "Sometimes when we play late into the night." He starts, thinking once more if he really wants to say this kind of personal stuff. Looking up at Mylene's smiling face. Penny in her hands cooing. And he knows that this is something he can share with her. "When it's so late that we be falling over each other. Zeke’ll keep going. Writing in that book of his." Shao swallows the dryness in his throat and looks down at the concrete. "Once he see everybody asleep he starts reciting to himself. He'll stop when he see someone waking up. I had to pretend to be a sleep just to hear him." He huffed out a breath and adjusts his hat, "Must of caught on though. He never stops when he sees I'm awake."

"You're flying then too right." Mylene says and it's not really a question. "When you're with Zeke."

"Every damn minute, B."

The two had settled something that day. A new understand flourished between them. Though they didn't know someone else had come up the fire escape and seen their kisses and kind words. And it was brewing a storm in him.


	2. Help from the Extraterrestrial

Apparently the stars did not favor him today. The rest of the crew was too busy with work or school to take out any time for Zeke's dramatics. So the responsibility fell to Dizzee. After all the beautiful world of freedom and discover always came second to the well-being of his brothers. Yet all beings, no matter how benevolent, had their limits.

Since Zeke had stumbled into Dizzee’s shared apartment he’d puked the bit of rum he’d downed. Of course it wasn’t all at once. Dizzee sat bent on his knees scrubbing at fresh stains in the large rug while Zeke sobbed into Dizzee’s couch cushions, mumbling about pigeons and stolen kisses. Oh how blessed was Dizz.

"Perhaps you could relay the narrative once again.” He asks Zeke, hoping it will limit the boy’s theatrical sobbing, even for a moment. Maybe this round Dizzee might be able to piece together what was upsetting his friend so. "Who was it you saw at the temple, again?"

"A Brutus nigga with his bitch, Persephone!" Zeke shouted from the couch.

After a quick pause for a meditative breath, Dizzee rephrased his question. "Does this ‘ _Brutus_ ’ have a name he is regularly referred by or are you not that well acquainted?"

Something about his question had put Zeke in a dark place. He set his gaze on the ceiling. "You want his name? We never knew this nigga's name." he said flatly. This was more personal than Dizzee had supposed. "And I thought that was the only thing he was keeping from me, but he all up on my girl – my butterscotch queen – and he never said nothing about it!" Zeke spat, "You should have seen the way they were hanging on each other." He scoffed. "All sweet and shit."

"So this _'Brutus'_ , we know him?" Dizz could not conceive anyone they knew who might betray Zeke in such a way.

"Everybody know him. And nobody know him. He's a fucking phantom. Sometimes I think he not even real." Zeke said, a hollow tone in his voice that did not sit well with Dizzee at all. The negative energy had his skin itching. "The worst part is, I'd really thought we were going somewhere. We hadn't fought in months." Zeke added in a faint whisper.

A serious fight between Zeke and Mylene a week or so back was deeply ingrained into Dizzee’s memory, but he keeps that to himself.

"Dizzee, do you think it – any of it – was real?" Zeke’s voice was croaky, broken from overuse or emotion. Dizz was convinced of the later.

"Don’t say such things. Zeke, _love_ , is always real."

"Was it even love, though? Or even, the same type of love. Maybe another of Aphrodite's tricks" by now Zeke was exasperated and he was sniveling again. "Why did it have to be him?" Zeke wiped his running nose with the back of his hand. "I can't. If he wants her-" And now there were hiccups. "Then I'm - we -"

With a weak sigh Dizz attempted to quiet the boy. "Zeke, Mylene's not gonna leave you – "

"No. He'll see Mylene for the beautiful brilliant sunbeam she is!" Zeke shouted "Then he'll forget all about me." He breaks into a fit of coughs for a moment. When he speaks again his throat is somehow even hoarser. "Who wants a pair of wax wings when you can have the brilliance of the sun?"

 _Wax wings_ , Zeke was really digging into these classical allusions. Wait, _wings_. At this point Dizzee had given up on comforting the teen. Clearly he wanted to be miserable. Now Dizzee was curious. He wanted to know who this mystery man was. He wasn't sure, but he had his suspicions.

"So if you are his wings and he's Iccaras, has he been flying too close to the sun or is he too close to the waves below." Dizz asked a questioning air in his tone.

"My Iccaras would never fall to no waves." Zeke replies too harshly, as if the implication itself disgusts him. "Instead his eyes will set on the splendor of the sun."

"Would he now?" Dizzee asks.

"Yeah! Seen too much pain to let chaos end him. Only thing that could take him out is gladness."

Maybe… no, Dizzee knows better than to think that. "Zeke, the way you talking," Dizz paused not sure if this would be too incriminating, "do you think your Icarus is Shaolin Fantastic?"

"The lady killing romantic." Zeke slurred in a flat tone, voice all croaky from crying.

"That can't be -"

"It's what I saw!"

"I'm sorry Zeke, but Shao’s not like that." Dizzee says, shaking his head.

"Like what, a Judas Brutus?! Well maybe you should go tell him that, cause he must of not got the memo." Zeke sent a stony glare Dizzee’s way from the couch.

"No. Look. I can tell you with certainty that Shao’s not interested in Mylene."

"Then what did I see?"

“A misunderstanding, a rejection, or maybe a man who just looked like Shao."

Zeke looked skeptical.

"We should have Mylene come over and clear this whole thing up.

"Why yes, why don't we do that?" Zeke replied in that proper voice he reserved for the realm of blancitos.

It took Mylene two hours, but the end of Zeke’s drunken moaning was such a relief. Dizzee quickly let her in. Guiding her to the coach. Offering her something to drink like an honorable guest, unlike his drunken friend. She sat on the recliner, since Zeke felt the need to stretch out to the full length of the couch as soon as she came near it.

"What you saw yesterday…" she started. "It won't change nothing for us."

Her tone didn't seem so sure.

"We'll what I saw already changed a lot."

"He doesn't like me like that, Zeke."

"Oh he likes you. He’s gonna love you one day."

"No, Zeke." She whispered.

"You like him! That'll be enough for him. And the two of you will be so busy lovin’ that you'll forget all about me." Zeke's voice broke off towards the end.

With a plea in her eyes Mylene glanced over to Dizzee.

"Nah he not gone forget you. He'll never forget – " Dizzee cut himself off before he said too much. He couldn’t tell Zeke he was Shao’s everything. His family. His world. It wasn't Dizz's truth to tell. "Trust me on that."

Zeke shot up on the sofa, "How would you know?" Suddenly all the anger that had puffed him up seeped out of his body, "He say anything – ?"

"Yeah he said, but not with words." Dizzee replied. "Maybe you should just go to him. Tomorrow. And sleep that liqueur off." Dizz hoped Zeke should have an easier time once he's sober.

He gave Dizz a reluctant nod and shuffled over to the edge of the sofa. With that Dizzee went off to his own bed. Zeke was less reluctant when he leaned to take Mylene’s hand and pull her onto the sofa with him.

As they lay there, Zeke traces circles on Mylene’s arms, but refused to look at her. "I now you mad at me – " She started, but he cut her short.

"'Mm not mad." He mumbled back.

She gripped at his side "You are mad, Zeke!"

A sigh leaves his lips, "I ain’t mad at you." Finally he fixed his gaze on her. "I'd thought you and Shaolin were separate parts of my life. And I was wrong."

"That doesn't have to be a bad thing, Zeke."

The silence that followed bled into a gentle sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took awhile and I might edit it to add more descriptions. I'm a bit worried there is more dialogue than setting. It took me a while to get the second chapter out, but it's out now. This fic uses mature language like in the show. The n-word is thrown around. If that bothers you don't read. Letting you know, I'm black so don't confront me on the use. I don't care


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